Norwich 1 Birmingham 1

Norwich will be very happy with their performance despite only walking away with a point. Norwich dominated the first half, but it was Birmingham that led at half time through a Sebastian Larsson free kick. The second half was a more even affair, but Norwich started the half strongly by quickly grabbing the equaliser.

Glenn Roeder took the opportunity to freshen his team up by bringing in Lupoli and Ostsembor, but Croft had to settle for a place on the bench. The biggest talking point though was the absence of Jason Shackell, but it's now known he is discussing a move to Wolves. Jamie Cureton was dropped to the bench and Elliott Omozusi missed out completely. Interestingly despite coming in for criticism Wes Hoolahan kept his place.

Norwich started the match very strongly and the new look strike partnership of Russell and Lupoli was working well. Russell was battling away with the Birmingham defence and Lupoli using his pace to cause problems. In fact Lupoli had two strong first half penalty claims, they both looked strong, but he ref wasn't interested. Credit to Lupoli as he wasn't rolling around and complaining, but just got in with it. As with many games this season Norwich kept the ball well and played some wonderful football. Again though Norwich lacked that killer instinct and failed to turn domination into goals. They were as it happens duly punished, when Sebastian Larsson turned in a trademark free kick with one of Birmingham's few efforts. Somehow Norwich went in at half time 1-0 down, but the fans realized it was a good performance and clapped the team off

HT: NCFC 0 Birmingham 1

The second half was a more even affair, but it was Norwich who came out the quicker and the game was level. Hoolahan picked the ball up on the left and threaded the ball through to Lupoli who cut inside into the box, beating two challenges before setting up striker partner Darrel Russell for a simple finish. Birmingham brought Marcus Bent on to add that sort of physical presence Norwich is still seeking. Lupoli came off after an hour, which was a shame as Jamie Cureton never quite carried the same threat. Jamie worked hard and saw a decent headed effort go wide, but it was Lupoli's pace that caused all the problems in the first half and Cureton didn't measure up. Norwich continued to create chances, but couldn't find that winning goal. In fact it was Birmingham that had the better opportunities to win the game late on. Another of Birmingham's subs Gary Mcsheffrey saw an effort go just over the bar when well placed. The real drama arrived in injury time when the ball was squared to Kevin Phillips, he looked certain to score, but Marshall made himself big and quite brilliantly knocked the ball away. Norwich came away with a richly deserved point.

Final verdict

I thought this was an excellent performance by Norwich, we outplayed Birmingham for long periods and that is excellent to see. My one big concern is concerning goals, but hopefully Roeder will pull a rabbit out of the hat on Monday evening. Finally, it will be a shame to see Shackell go, but he isn't first choice and we can spend the money on more important areas.